A beautiful still, dry morning with a perfect blue dome of sky scuffed with high cloud around the horizon.
Dozens of Swallows (including many youngsters without the long tail streamers of the adults) and House Martins circle around the Learning Centre pond, squeaking to each other as they swirl.
A Raven ‘cronks’ noisily overhead, before landing on the top of a Black Pine in the Copse, causing a flurry of alarm calls from smaller birds. In the cool shade of the Copse, a Great Spotted Woodpecker drums lethargically – eventually spotted among the branches of a Sycamore, with the chuckle of a Green Woodpecker heard from the hedge just outside.
Among the canopy, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps are busy foraging, along with a few tiny Goldcrests.
A great view of a Redstart, his ruddy breast blending in with the clusters of unripe blackberries around him, in a patch of scrub in the Saxon Field, with a Whitethroat skipping along above him.
The meadows are filled with the chorus of Field and Meadow Grasshoppers, while along the drove, Speckled Wood butterflies patrol their territory, ready to chase off intruders. A Common Blue flutters by in the Lighthouse Field, while the Buddleia just outside the window as I write is covered with Large Whites, Painted Ladies, Red Admirals and a Small Tortoiseshell.
Although many flowers are now going to seed, plenty of nectar still available, with seas of yellow-flowered Fleabane, Ragwort, Woolly Thistle, Spear Thistle, Wild Carrot, Rough Hawkbit and Bristly Ox-tongue among the most numerous species in bloom.
A relatively quiet morning for our bird ringers, although a good ‘haul’ of Grasshopper Warblers this morning, along with a male Goldcrest (his crest tinged with orange distinguishing him from the females).
A gleaming black Ground Beetle plods across the short turf at the top of the Lighthouse Field, with a huge green and blue Emperor Dragonfly whirring past in Skipworth Meadow.
Why not join our Wildlife Photography walk with Julian Sawyer at 10.30 to hopefully see and photograph some of these?